January 27, 2014

Elder Truscott and his new Comp. Elder Ramosoeu at the Internet Cafe

Elder Truscott and a local township artist that told the Elders he's an Artist from Paris, France

Ok....so let me tell you about my week :)

Well geez, a couple things happened this week! For one thing though, I am officially 6 MONTHS out here in SA :) I burned a tie for the ceremony and everything :) AAAANNNDDDD it was transfer week, so I will tell you all about it.
So Monday we got the transfer news that Elder Graydon was going to East London, and that I would be staying in Grahamstown with a new Companion,  Elder Ramosoeu. Usually you leave on Wednesdays for transfers, but because we had to drive to Port Elizabeth (for Graydon to get the bus and me to pick up Ramosoeu from the airport) we had to drive to Port Elizabeth Tuesday night. That pretty much crammed everything into one day .....

So Tuesday Graydon said his goodbyes and packed, and we FINALLY got on the road to Port Elizabeth  at like 9:30. Hahaha. So we drove there and slept at the Zone Leaders boarding there, and in the morning EARLY Graydon had to be at the bus stop. Graydon would get on the bus at 6, and then my comp wasn't going to be there until 2:30 from the plane. So I was with other kids who were waiting for their new comp's.  It was kinda cool to see Elder Creech again :) I saw him at the bus stop! But anyways,  We had time to kill, so we went to a place called boardwalk. It's kind of like the Grand West place that I went to in Cape Town.....so that killed our time and then off to the airport to pick up companions :) I saw Hlophe and Cobabe at the airport and I was super happy to talk to them and catch up!

I am with Elder Ramosoeu, he is from a place called Bloemfontein, South Africa.

It was a pretty boring week besides transfers to be honest with you. Not tons of lessons and stuff....but Saturday was my 6 month mark!!! 1/4 of the way done with my mission! I went to the little china shop here, and bought a 35 Rand tie, and burnt it for the occasion :) haha.

As far as the people go, we have been spending lots of time with Grant and Shanice. We just go and read the Book of Mormon and hang out with them! Like Saturday we went and watched the neighborhood rugby game, bought some drinks, and chilled and then read some Book of Mormon, it is super cool. They are super cool people, and I think Grant is getting closer and closer to ready! He didn't come to church this week cause he had work, but we walked with Shanice.The Sinama's are still amazing! they are such cool people! Emerald we didn't get a chance to see this week.....she got held up at work or something for our appointment, so we are going to be seeing her tonight!

Things are moving right along here in Grahamstown though.

Love,

Elder Truscott

6 Months Down...But who's counting ???

Alright, so as far as my week goes, it was a decent week here in SA! I can't complain!
This morning we did another one of our "Nature Walks with Breakfast" with Bro. Alan, and we got out of there later than we thought, had to have our boarding inspection, and then the quest for internet
came.....

We have been getting so many flat tires! I told you that we got all of the tires fixed, but this week again the back tire went flat when we were driving home one night! Ha ha ha, it's the first tire that I've had to change personally though, cause usually people run up to help us! Not this time, so we have problems with tires here in township driving around ;)

Ok so since our transfers are over, we had to have our boarding inspection on Tuesday...well lets just say that we failed, so the Chases said that we needed to clean, and they would come back. We actually cleaned really well, and now we just had our re-inspection this morning, and we passed!
 
Wednesday, we went out to the Thomas's farm all day long to help and do service there. It was probably one of the hottest days I've experienced in SA so far...it was up to 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit)  so it was pretty hot. We helped them load and unload their buckey (what they call trucks over here) and take the stuff to a storage place they had. It was actually a really fun day, and I liked the little change it gave me :)

Yesterday was an interesting day! It was Sunday so we went to church of course, but after church we went to the Sinama's (Sibu's family) cause it was the moms birthday :) I already knew, so Saturday I bought a big cake, and we took it to them yesterday and sang, and sat and had a great lesson :)

So from there we went to Elizabeth, one of our investigators, cause Graydon had agreed to go to her church with her yesterday. We went to the Old Apostolic church, which was in ALL Afrikaans and was pretty weird for me. There were parts that were different, and strange.
 
We had a good amount of lessons and stuff to do this week! Grant is moving along. He wants to be baptized but there are some things that are stopping him from being able to. Smoking is one...but he wants to quit, and he's getting there, he has already quit drinking!

The Sinama's are amazing! I look forward to their lessons every time cause they are so much fun :) They are a great family!

Emerald is having a real tough time right now with things going on in her life. Her boyfriend had his ID stolen, and now they are in a real tough financial thing with the fraud going on, and its really wearing her down. But she keeps having appointments, and loves it when we are there, so I'm happy for that! :)

Now we are just waiting for transfer news tonight! I am thinking that Graydon is leaving, I'm staying, and Ramoshaba and Bell are staying the same....but we will see!

Love,

Elder Truscott

Well another week down!

Elder Truscott with Garth, or G-Man

Elder Truscott and Elder Graydon having a lesson with Grant and Shanice 

Alright so about my week!

Well another week down! This week was a long one for me....I don't know why. Monday we emailed and then started off for East London where our Zone training and interviews were! We were supposed to drive with Elder Ramoshaba and Elder Bell, but Elder Bell got food poisoning,
apparently from a chicken pie he bought at a gas station.....hahaha, ya that will do it! ;) so me and Graydon drove down there Monday afternoon and Bell and Ramoshaba came down with the Chase's on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday we had our training and interviews, and we were the morning session, so we had to be at the chapel there at about 8:30. We got there fine, and while the Zone Leaders were doing their training President Wood pulled us out and we all had our interviews, and then President Wood gave us a training and we ate some lunch :) It was alright I suppose! Nothing too exciting, just trainings on companionship study and stuff like that, apparently all over the world its a problem that Elders either aren't doing it, or doing it wrong....

Wednesday I had my exchanges with Elder Bell. He was still sick from his food poisoning...so he was pretty quiet and stuff, haha. We had a full day pretty much, from like 2 on, and ended with a dinner appointment with brother Alan's place.

This weekend, on Saturday, we were driving around, and we came out from something, and boom....flat tire. Our spare tire was flat too....so we went to the gas station, pumped it up, and then just drove to our next appointment, which was with Grant and Shanice. Of course it was flat within 30 minutes again....and Grahamstown, for some reason everything closes EARLY. So on Saturday at 5ish, everything is closed. Well good old township! Grant and Shanice knew a place in township that would do it....so me, Graydon, Grant, and a guy named Alex rolled the tires down to this place, and they fixed them, and then we rolled them back and stuck one on :) then Grant and I got up onto his roof with a bucket of cement and I helped him fix his roof cause when it rained it would leak. It was pretty cool :) Grant is a super cool guy, and they are all so nice.

So ya in terms of people....things kinda sucked and things went well this week, hahaha, if you can get that!

Sharon, pretty much the person we thought was progressing the most, we haven't been able to see. We went there, and her kid was like "my mom said you can take your book back", well of course we were like craaaap! So we called her at work and she told us that she's sorry for wasting our time, she's giving us back the Book of Mormon, and she doesn't believe what we have been saying but it's opened her eyes a bit. Dang it!! So we are trying to just catch her home one last time to talk about it....but that put a damper on things!

On the other hand, we started really teaching Sibu's family this week! Oh my gosh they are SOO cool! Like even his mom (his aunt) is super nice and funny. And they are really progressing! Like she said that after one of our lessons, they set time aside and read the Book of Mormon together and prayed about it...like wow. That's what we are constantly trying to get people to do! And they did it after our first lesson! And the mom said that she feels like she just wants to read more and more!

Also, a lady named Emerald that we met, we saw her a few times this week and she is super awesome! Like she was worried about us going to East London, and as we read with her she told us that she has no doubt that what we say is true, and that she will come to church when she feels
ready, so that was good!

So there's been good and bad this week I guess! But the transfer is almost over! This coming week is the last week of the transfer!

The time of the week has come, where I have to get off the computer now, but know that I love you, and I really appreciate everyone's love and support.

Love,

Elder Truscott

We are now into 2014 :)

Sibu and Elder Truscott in Grahamstown

 

Elder Truscott at an Animal Reserve in Port Alfred

We are now into 2014 :)  I'll tell you about my week here, which by the way is SOOO hot right now....like sweating weather at 9 in the morning!

Monday we drove down to Port Alfred to do a giraffe park thing! I didn't know what to expect, but lots of missionaries that are around that area do it. So we went there and it was like a big animal park thing we could drive through. We saw some deer things, some zebra, and some giraffes :) the cool thing though was that one of the giraffes they have there has been raised around people I guess, so he is in this area you can go and pet him! :) it was super cool!! The thing is huge of course so you are just petting it's leg and then all of a sudden it will just bend it's neck down and be in your face! Haha, it was really fun though, and made for a nice PDay :)

Tuesday was New Year's Eve, but the rule came out that on New Year's Eve we had to be home at 6. Well we stopped working at 6, but we went to pick up the other guys and they said that they were hungry too, so we went to a nice place called Gino's and ate some Italian food for New Years :)

Wednesday was New Year's Day, and the rules on it were pretty strict. We couldn't go out unless we had an appointment, and we weren't able to go into the township at all, even if we had appointments. Well since most of our work is in the township we had no appointments in town! We sat at the boarding most the day, but the Chase's invited us to their place to make pizzas and relax for a bit, so we did that and then went back to the other guys place and played games, hahaha. It wasn't bad.

 The biggest highlight from Thursday was the terrible news that Sibu was leaving Grahamstown and going back to Gugs. He called and told us his travel plans, so Thursday at 2 we went and chilled with him, and hung out with him until he had to catch his bus at 3:30. It was so cool to be able to meet up with him here! I'm so glad how things worked out like that, it was awesome to be around him during the holidays :) so we saw Sibu off and then went out to work!

Friday we had exchanges with the zone leaders. They came in from east London, and I was with Elder Nkosi. 

But I realized I haven't talked tons about the people here in Grahamstown. So I will tell a bit about the ones that I'm getting to know better.

So first off there is Grant and Shanice. Grant is an investigator and Shanice is a member. We are seeing them all the time. It was funny kinda, when I first got here they weren't really lively to missionaries and stuff, but lately they have loved having us around and I've gotten to really like them
 

Sister Amanda Boesak  is Shanice's mom. We visit her a lot too, and we have been trying to walk with her and Shanice and Grant to church every week so that they will come!

 

We've been teaching Isabelle, Sharon, Sharon's daughter usually sits in, and trying to get Sharon's brother Malachi to join us too. They are doing good! This week was kinda crazy for appointments with New Years and stuff so we haven't seen them and had a lesson since last Sunday, but we will be seeing them this week.

Another family that we are teaching is a lady named Emerald. She lives with her boyfriend, which we've never met, but we were tracting an area and found her and her 2 daughters, Kaylin and Keisha. They have been doing super good too. Always listening in lessons and she even read part of the Book of Mormon when we left it, the introduction and the testimonies! It was pretty cool! So we've been seeing them and Kaylins boyfriend is usually there too.

We're teaching others, but those are the main ones right now that we are trying to focus on, cause like I said, there hasn't been a baptism here for a LONG time, and besides Grant and the Boesak's everyone I talked about we found this transfer, so we are hoping the new people progress! :)

 

But that's about it in terms of news from over here in S.A. And my week!

 

We are driving back to East London today for interviews and training which are tomorrow.

I love you!

 

Elder Truscott